KHAJURAHO OF MAHARASHTRA

Just like any other tourists who had taken a break from daily routine, we (i.e my husband, daughter, niece n my parents in law) set out for a five days holiday to nearby Kolhapur and surrounding areas. As was my routine I wasn’t satisfied with the usual places and started surfing the net and while surfing came across Khidrapur. What attracted my attention was that it had a lot of similarities to our own Tambdi Surla temple. Thus this became one of the important must see sight in my itinerary.

We left early in the morning the day after Diwali. Going via Belgaum, our first halt was the Kaneri math or Siddhagiri (this I will be dealing separately).
 Later on we visited the famous Ambabai temple and it was about four in the evening that we set out for Khidrapur. Now one thing I would like to mention is that this was the tour wherein my main intention was visiting Akkalkot. Since Kolhapur was on the way, I wanted to see all the places in between (that’s the advantage of going in your own vehicle J). According to the Google maps which were our constant companion throughout this tour, we headed towards Khidrapur.

Before I proceed further let me share one funny incident. I am not sure whether to call it funny but whatever.... when I decided to go on this tour and Akkalkot in specific, Narsobawadi, another famous temple belonging to Dattatreya incarnation was not on the list. I had already been there two three times before and once with my husband and I was sure he would not be too keen on going there again. So even though it was somewhere back in my mind I had not mentioned about it openly to my family particularly to my husband.

So here we were searching for a route to go to Khidrapur, check out the temple and proceed further in our journey. After much driving on the route shown by Google maps we still did not come across any signs or signboard which would take us on the correct route. Driving further for about a five to six kms we came across the signboard which said “NARSOBAWADI 11 KMS”. It was about six in the evening and was getting really dark. So suddenly my husband asked “shall we halt at Narsobawadi? It’s getting dark and there’s no signboard showing Khidrapur as such” I did not think even for a second of saying no. It was as if God (or was it travel Goddess?)was silently giving me what I actually needed....to be at Narsobawadi for a short period.” Yes, yes we can halt there and since its Thursday we would be also lucky to witness the aarti over there. “I replied. And thus it was decided to take a night halt at Narsobawadi and we moved in the direction of Wadi. Barely had we gone some two kms further, we came across the signboard “KHIDRAPUR KOPESWAR TEMPLE 8 KMS”. This incident left me wondering..... Was it Gods will that we be there in Narsobawadi for the night? Whatever it was, this was how we landed up in Narsobawadi which was never there in our list to begin with.

Now that we knew that Khidrapur was few kilometres away from Narsobawadi, we decided to visit it next morning. So next morning after having an early breakfast we left for the place. When we were travelling to this place I realized why it was necessary for me to see the temple early in the morning and not in the dim light of evening.

The road to the temple is very narrow and on the both sides covered with fields. In the early morning the atmosphere is quiet, calm and serene with the chirping of the birds. The road gets so narrow sometimes that it’s barely enough for one vehicle. If you were not careful the danger was that you could go off the road (Was this why we could not come here in the evening? I wondered).

We reached the temple at about 8.30 or so. The temple is situated on the banks of Krishna river on the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka. It depicts the Shilahara style of architecture.

At the first sight the temple gateway looks very simple as if it was a part of some old mansion. The ASI has put up a board describing the temple and proclaiming it as heritage architecture. Once you cross the threshold even then you find the temple very simple and start wondering what’s so special about this. It’s just like some ordinary carved temple. And then you go inside and see the carvings and slowly you realize what actually you had missed while forming the opinion.

We went in directly to the sanctum sanctorium. In the interior we first come across Vishnu in the linga form and then the shivalinga which faces north. Among all of us only I knew the story behind this temple and why we were seeing two shivalingas instead of one.

So now I decided to play the part of guide and started to tell the story of the temple to my husband. Suddenly a man came in front of us and asked” Tai, hya mandira baddalachi mahiti saangu ka mi? Chalel tumhala? ”(sister, is it okay with you if I tell you the story of this temple?). I had seen this person sitting in the courtyard of the temple while we were entering. He looked a local person and I was very happy to get to know the history from the local man himself(this is why I consider myself very lucky to have been blessed by travel goddess if there’s one. This has happened to me many times in my travels that some unknown person out of nowhere has come and explained the whole structure.). I readily agreed and this man showed us all the intricacies of the temple architecture which we would otherwise have missed.

 He started with the temple legend which is as follows:

When DakshaPrajapati, the father of Sati conducted a Yagna (fire sacrifice), he did not invite either Sati, his daughter or her husband Shiva to attend it. Nonetheless Sati decided to attend it and visited the house of her father on Shiva’s Nandi. Seeing her at the venue Daksha started insulting her as well as Shiva. Unable to bear the insults of her husband Sati jumped into the fire. When lord Shiva came to know about this, he was furious. In his anger he ordered Virabhadra to punish Daksha for his misdeeds. Virbhadra followed the orders of his master and cut the head of Daksha and brought the severed head before Shiva. Even then Shiva wasn’t pacified. He left the Kailash and with Sati’s corpse started roaming here and there. Lord Vishnu with his Sudarshan Chakra cut the body into many pieces. The pieces fell on earth and they became the Shaktipeethas. When Shiva realized that Sati was no more he, still in his angry form came to Khidrapur. It is said that Lord Vishnu then came to pacify him and was successful in doing so. Since Shiva was still furious when he came to this place, the temple is known as Kopeshwar Mahadev Temple. It has shivalinga and before the linga there is another linga which is worshipped as Vishnu, who came to pacify Shiva. Here Vishnu is known as Dhopeshwar.

This is probably the only temple where there is no Nandi, the vehicle of Shiva before the temple. (I am not sure though) The legend is he is still waiting for Sati in the nearby village of Yedur (some 5/6 km away from Khidrapur) to take her back to Kailash.

After narrating the legend he (his name was Ramesh) started showing us around the temple. The work of this temple started in 7^th Century A.D. but could not be completed because of the constant battles and invasions in this area. The temple was completed only in the 12^th Century by the Shilaharas and later on the Yadava kings who ruled over this part of Maharashtra. He first showed us the pillars and the carvings of various deities on them. There were not only the figurines of Ganesh and Parvati and Kartikeya but also of Vishnu, Indra, Brahma, Rama, Laxmana. Even Narada with his veena was present on the pillars.” Ikde ye ga choti” he suddenly said pointing to my niece” tula mi na ek gammat dakhavto” (I will show you something). The ‘Choti’ in question suddenly felt nervous. He took all of us to a corner pillar. There he pointed to a particular carving and asked ‘Choti, mala saang hi konti gosht aahe?”(Tell me which story is this?). Along with my niece we too looked at the carving with great interest. The carvings looked like that of a crocodile and a monkey on a tree. Suddenly I remembered, hey, it’s the story from Panchatantra that of monkey and crocodile’ “yes you are right” Ramesh said “and see here” He took us to the adjacent pillar “here’s the story of talking tortoise and the two birds.”Looking at the stories carved in the pillars I was really amazed. If not for Ramesh giving us a guided tour we would have surely missed that.

He then took us to the outer hall which is called as the swargamandap. There the architecture is simply superb. The swargamandap is round in shape and is constructed with the support of 48 carved stone pillars. Each of these pillars has different shapes. They are round,square, hexagon and octagon. Swargamandap is known so because of its unique ceiling. The circular ceiling in the middle is open to the sky. This area was probably used for the fire rituals and the smoke went directly out in the sky.

Coming out of the temple he continued, “The whole temple rests on the statues of 99 elephants. Some of them are now in distorted (bhagna) shape due to the invasions that took place. Still the temple survived. He took us around the temple. The windows of the temple were intricately carved with the flower design. “Look closely”, he said, “none of the flowers is similar to one another”.

        

                           

 The statues of Yaksha, Yakshinis, Gandhrvas, Shiv Parvati, Vishnu and Laxmi,Brahma and Saraswati adorn the outer sides of the temple. The dashavataras of Lord Vishnu is also seen carved among them. The female statues in the position of beautifying themselves for eg. Lady combing her hair, another lady looking in the mirror also can be seen.There is also a unique concept of Vishakanya carved throughout. (Vishkanya was the concept in ancient India where beautiful girls from the tender age were given some portion of poison to drink. By the time they grew up in beautiful ladies, they themselves became immune to the poison but were deadly for the enemies of the king. Their small bite could result in the instant death.)

 

 “How do you know which of the figurines are Vishakanya?”, my father in law asked. This question had also puzzled me. How did Ramesh identify Vishakanyas from so many female statues carved on the wall? “Look carefully,” he said “they are all carved nude.” Yes that was the thing. All other female statues be it the statues of goddesses or other female carvings all had either ornaments or a shawl like clothes carved on their body whereas Vishkanyas were carved bare.

Outside the temple there is also a stone inscription written in devnagri. However the state of this inscription is not good. The letters are faded and cannot be read probably because of many people touched it again and again without knowing its importance. This stone inscription needs to be preserved in a proper way.

There is also a ‘Veergal’ or Hero stone lying around in the temple courtyard. (Hero stone is a stone which has three parts; the bottom one depicts the battle in which the hero participates, the middle portion talks about his death and the upper portion shows him in worshiping position thereby depicting that he has reached heaven because of his brave deeds.) 

A broken statue was seen lying too. “This is the statue which was inside the temple first. He is one of the Dwarpals(gatekeepers) of Vishnu, ‘Jai-Vijay. Since the statue is mutilated it is kept over here.” Ramesh explained. It is said that the temple got partially destroyed during Aurangzeb’s invasion on Deccan. Our tour of the temple was coming to an end. We thanked Ramesh for his wonderful guidance about the temple. While back on the way I was left wondering, if it wasn’t for him we would have taken some 15 minutes or so to see this temple and would not have seen all the intricate details that were there to see. What was it that made us halt at Narsobawadi at night and come to this temple early in the morning? What was it that made Ramesh tell us the story behind the temple? Was it destiny? Till now I have not found the answers to these questions of mine.....But yes, looking at the intricately carved statues and ornamental pillars the temple is rightly called as the Khajuraho of Maharashtra.

HOW TO GO TO KHIDRAPUR;

Distance from Kolhapur to Khidrapur is approximately 58 kms.

Distance from Kolahapur to Narsobawadi  is approximately 48 Kms.

Distance from Narsobawadi to Khidrapur is approximately 18 kms.

It is better that you take a private vehicle to see the place.

There is no lodging or hotels in the vicinity of the temple.

If you reach there in the evening it is better to take halt at Narsobawadi which is about 18 kms from the place.

It is better to see the temple in the broad daylight instead of in the evening.

SHIVNERI: BIRTHPLACE OF SAHYADRI’S LION

YEAR 1630.Jijabai, the wife of Shahaji was standing before the statue of Goddess Shivaii,the patron goddess of the Shivneri fort. Her face was showing the anger and the helplessness that she felt at that moment. Just then she had received the news of the brutal murder of her father and her brothers in the open darbarhall of Nizamshah. Shahaji having protested the brutal murder; had left his post in the court of Nizam; was facing the death threat himself and was on the run. In the meantime he had left his pregnant wife at Shivneri, in the care of the killedarVishwasrao who was his trusted aide. With all these events running in her mind the agony which Jijabai was going through was showing on her face.”Aai Bhavani, help the Marathas to unite, help them to get their self-respect back.Show the path”Jijabai pleaded with the Goddess with all her might. And probably her prayers were heard. On 19^th April 1630 a son was born to Raja Shahaji and Jijabai. He was named as Shivaji after the Goddess Shivai.

And to this fort I was heading to with two friends of mine Priti and Sarita.

We parked our car at the bottom of the fort. Priti was tired after climbing the Lenyadri and decided not to join us. So it was Sarita and I along with our kids started our journey of this fort. Right at the entrance you have the map of the whole fort displayed. That tells you how big the fort is.

THE MAP OF THE FORT

MAIN DOOR

CARVING OF THE DOG CRUSHING THE ELEPHANT ON ONE OF THE DOORS

ANOTHER RUINED GATEWAY OF SHIVNERI

You go little further and you come across the ruins of what was the storage room for storing of grains. It was known as the AMBARKHANA.

RUINS OF THE AMBARKHANA

 Clicking some snaps here and there we proceeded further. There are total seven gates which one needs to cross.On one of the doors you can see a carving of a dog like animal crushing the elephants under its feet.It meant that even a nameless entity can crush the mightiest. Our main destination was to see the birthplace of this great leader.

On the way you come across a path on the right hand side. This path leads you straight to the temple of Goddess Shivai.


          


The main temple is very small and now a big portrait of Raje Shivaji is displayed at the entrance.

 Seeking the blessings of the goddess who answered the prayers of a heartbroken lady, we spent some time in the vicinity of this temple. Sitting on the wall of the temple one can see the surrounding sahyadri range stretched far and wide. The green fields below soothed the eyes. The doorway which leads to the temple has beautiful carvings displayed.

From the temple we again proceeded to the Shivjanmasthan. The road from the temple to the building where Shivaji was born or for that matter where Jijabai and other royal ladies stayed is about 2 km far from each other. We could see the building from where we stood. It looked like it was on the end of the cliff and was about to fall down from there.

 Looking at the distance one wondered how Jijabai used to go everyday from her quarters to the temple in her pregnant state. Mind you the road is not smooth either. You need to climb up and down the uneven steps carved out of the rock. This is where one requires the supply of water with you. Halting, taking a sip or two from the water bottles and marvelling at how both the children were walking ahead of us without getting tired, we too joined them though we were little behind them.

On the way we passed the Badami talav (Badami Tank) and the two water tanks i.e. Ganga and Jamuna. The water from these tanks is now polluted but the tanks never get dried up. The water source is constant throughout the year,

FROG NEAR THE TANK

THE TWIN TANKS

and then came the structure where a statue is kept of child Shivba and his mother Jijabai. Spending just five minutes over there, we proceeded further.

STATUE OF BAL SHIVAJI AND JIJABAI

Our destination was very near and I was eager to see it.

And finally we reached. The two storey building was calling me to step in and that’s what I did.

 The place where Shivaji was born.......this is a small room on the groundfloor of this building and is very dark. In those days the labour room used to be very dark and nobody except the middle woman that is Dai was allowed inside. Today the room has a bust of Shivaji and a small cradle is kept to keep alive the moment and the incident that took place.

SHIVAJI'S BIRTHPLACE(Court. google pics)

Taking in the sight of the room as much as we could, we went on the top floor. This was where Jijabai lived after her delivery. The floor has arches and raised platforms near the windows. Compared to the labour room this top floor had the ventilation and plenty of light and air.

FIRST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING(COURT GOOGLE PICS)

From the windows you could see the parts of the fort in the distance. The arch of the mosque which is a prominent landmark could be seen from here. In the courtyard of the building there are ruined structures of probably another water tank (or was it a pool).

OUTSIDE THE BUILDING (COURTSY. GOOGLE PICS)

THE MOSQUE NEARBY THE SHIVJANMASTHAN

It was nearly the sunset time. The sun was slowly saying goodbye to the Shivneri. Taking the cue we too said our goodbye and proceeded towards the car taking with us the wonderful memories back of the fort which had seen not only the birth of this great leader but also the first few precious months of Shivaji’s life.

HISTORY OF THE FORT

Shivneri fort is at the height of about 3500 feet above sea level and is one of the important forts in the Sahyadri range. The fort is surrounded by other forts like Harishchandragad, Narayangad, Hadsar,  Chavand and Jivdhan.

Mention of Shivneri is in the chronicles way before the birth of Shivaji. It got its name probably during the Satvahana dynasty. During this time this fort was mainly used to guard the old trading route that is Naneghat. Before that it might have been used by the Buddhist monks who carved out caves in the hill of Shivneri. These caves, rock cut architecture as well as the water system dates back to 1^stcentury A.D.
From the Satvahanas , the Shivneri changed many hands Yadavas of Devgiri, Delhi Sultanate and then the Bahamanis in the 15^th century. In the year 1595, Maloji Bhosle , a Maratha sardar in the court of Nizamshah and the grandfather of Shivaji was given the control of Shivneri and Chakan.From there the jagir passed on to his son Shahaji. During the years 1626 onwards Shahaji who was earlier a sardar in the court of Nizam Shah had moved from the court of Nizamshah to the court of of Mughals for a brief period and then on to the Adilshah .During these turbulent times when he was always on the run, Shahaji was concerned for his pregnant wife Jijabai. So he thought that Shivneri would be the best place for Jijabai to be safe. It was the perfect place with a strongly built citadel and moreover the Killedar was a trusted aide of Shahaji by name of Vishwasrao.

It was here and under these circumstances that a son was born to Jijabai on 19^th February 1630.He was named as Shivaji or Shivba as he was known as after the patron Goddess of the fort,Shivai. This was the fort where he spent his childhood before shifting to Lalmahal in Pune.

Even if this fort was his birthplace, Shivaji had to surrender it to the Mughals and throughout his lifetime though he made attempts to reconquer it he could never do so. The fort came under the control of the Marathas in the later half of 18th century and after 1820 the fort was taken over by the British.

HOW TO REACH SHIVNERI:

• From Pune, Shivneri  is about 90 km by road.
• The nearest village is Junnar which is 2/3 kilometers away from Shivneri.
• There are buses plying from Pune to Junnar from Swargate in Pune.
• If you go by private vehicle you can go little bit further on the fort and from there you need to walk to reach the first doorway.
•  It’s better to carry your own food and water supply.

Majestic Ruins of a Royal Palace.

SHANIWARWADA (Courtsy Google Pics)

It was one such pleasant afternoon when along with my parents I was standing before the majestic gateway of the Shaniwarwada. I was literally awestruck looking at the hugeness of the door. It was my first visit to this place. In my mind I was waiting for the Peshwas to enter the palace so I could follow them. This was the fantasy of a 7 year old kid. By that time I had already developed a fascination for the Maratha history thanks to the books that I was reading (my first encounter with the Marathas was the novel ‘Swami’ by Ranjeet Desai at the age of 7 and the serial that was then being aired on Mumbai Doordarshan by the same title). The Peshwas did not materialise but we went in. Before me were the ruins in the form of bricks. Back then I was too young to understand their significance; so was roaming here and there. I happened to see a group of people and there was a guide with them who was explaining them the palace. I decided to join in and listen. However what I heard was enough for me to go away. The people seemed to be from North India (during that age, for me, whoever spoke Hindi were from north and whoever spoke Kannada and Tamil and Telugu were South Indians.) The guard was in his element and probably had decided to form his own version.”Yahan iss wade mein Raja Shivaji ka janam hua tha!” (Raja Shivaji was born in this palace) He explained and I was like” really? Then who was born in the LalMahal just across the road?”

I did not wait there to listen to more but I think it was this experience that made me do a thorough research before visiting any places be it small or big.

I visited the Shaniwarwada once again in 2010 when my daughter Tanvi was 6 years old. Again I found myself staring at the gateway holding my daughter’s hand. Suddenly out of nowhere came the question,”mumma, who were these people and what Shivaji had to do with them?” Little Tanvi’s question took me back to my history lessons.........

Year 1707..... the big news broke down all over the Maratha empire.......the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had breathed his last  and soon their Prince Shahu would be returning back from captivity and would take over the administration. The people from the Maval waited for their king to come, however the things did not go very smoothly for the Prince. This was because of the following. In his absence it was Rajaram, the second son of Shivaji and later-on his widow,Tarabai was looking after the Maratha kingdom and was successful in keeping the Mughals at the bay. Because of this she was very reluctant to hand over the powers to Shahu,the son of Chatrapati Sambhaji and the original heir to the Maratha throne according to the Marathas. What followed was what Shivaji had always apprehensive of in his later life. The Maratha Empire got divided into two: one faction under Tarabai who ruled from Kolhapur and another ruled by Shahu from Satara. In all this Shahu was helped by Balaji Vishwanath, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Srivardhan in Konkan. He helped Shahu to get the Sanad or the acknowledgement from the Mughal emperor that he was now the Chatrapati of the Marathas. Balaji Vishwanah also managed to free Yesubai, the widow of Sambhaji from the mughal captivity. For all this he was appointed as the Peshwa or the Prime Minister of Swarajya,which was originated from the times of ChatrapatiShivaji.

FAMILY TREE OF BALAJI VISHWANATH(Courtsy Google pics)

When his son Bajirao I became Peshwa in the year 1719, the title from then onwards became hereditary. BajiRao I proved his loyalty and patriotism by controlling the feudal chieftains who wanted independence from the Maratha Empire and thereby strengthening Shahus place as the Chatrapati. In gratitude, Shahu gave the Peshwas unchallenged control over Maratha empire with the condition that Shivaji's descendants, who were the titular Raja of Satara were to be regarded as the master by the Peshwas who were answerable to them and officially they were to seek guidance from the Raja.

It was Bajirao I who built Shaniwarwada in Pune as his residence and since then Pune became the headquarters for the Maratha empire and the Peshwas,the real administrator.

PESHWA BAJIRAO I

 Story behind the Building:

According to a popular legend, Bajirao I was looking for a venue to built a palace as his residence cum administrative quarters. And he was roaming in Pune. Near LalMahal he suddenly came across a unique site that of a rabbit chasing a dog. There and then Bajirao decided to build his palace on that particular spot. The foundation stone and well as the actual construction started on Saturday (shaniwar in marathi) hence the name given to this is Shaniwarwada.

Right from its construction in 1732 till the year 1818 when Bajirao II surrendered to the East India Company, Shaniwarwada was the main seat of the activities.

I entered the main door and now once again I was standing before the ruins of the palace. However now I already knew its significance. They were calling out to me and like a possessed person I started roaming in between the ruins,along with my daughter. Before my eyes was standing the tall majestic seven floored palace fully made up of wood. Before its destruction by fire,the whole structure was made up of teak and bricks and was seven floored. Teak was imported from the jungles of Junnar, stone was brought from the nearby quarries of Chinchwad, and lime stone was brought from the lime-belts of Jejuri. Shaniwarwada was completed in 1732, at a total cost of Rs. 16,110, a very large sum at the time

RUINS OF THE PALACE AT PRESENT

SPIKED DOOR OF THE MAIN ENTRANCE

 “Come here Tanvi” I called out to my daughter who was busy munching her packet of chips and I took her to the left hand side of the main doorway. “You know,once upon a time this was the place where MastaniMahal stood.” “And how do we know this?” came her question. “It’s because the doorway leading to her palace was known as the Mastani darwaza.” Initially when Mastani came to Pune she used to stay in a palace (wada) at  Kothrud (today it is completely destroyed and there is no trace of it. The replica of the Mastani mahal is kept at the Raja Kelkar Museum,Pune )

With this we started the tour of the doors first. There are in total five gateways to the Shaniwarwada.which are named as follows:

Ganesh Darwaja which faced the Ganesh Mahal. It is said that Ganesh mahal was the hall where exquisite glass chandeliers hung from the ceilings and the floors adorned with the rich Persian rugs. The walls contained paintings with scenes from the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.Itserved as the court of the Peshwas on the special occasions. Behind the ‘Masnad’.i.e. the seat of the Peshwas, a huge painting of Ganesh (the deity of the Peshwas) was hung .That is why the hall was called as the Ganesh Mahal.

JambhulDarwaja, which later on came to be known as Narayan RaoDarwaja since it is believed that his corpse was taken out from this door secretly to be cremated.

KhidkiDarwaja

The whole structure was surrounded by garden.In the garden there were many fountains out of which Hazari Karanje was the famous one. It was in the form of lotus and water sprouted from thousands of small pipes which were attached to it. Hence the name.

FAMOUS HAZARI KARANZE NOW IN RUINS

RUINS OF ANOTHER FOUNTAIN

The later Peshwas made additions to the palace that was built by Bajirao I. Since the palace was destroyed in the fire, we only have the description found in various books to rely on. It is said that the whole structure was built with exquisitely carved teak arches, with ornamental teardrop teak pillars shaped like Suru (cypress tree) trunks supporting the ceilings, which were covered with beautiful teak tracery, carved creepers and flowers.

Shaniwarwada has been a mute witness to many intrigues and conspiracies, and victories as well as defeats. It has seen the biggest defeat of the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat in the year 1761 and also its revival under PeshwaMadhavrao I.It has seen the greed for the power in the form of Raghunathrao and Aanandibai which culminated into the murder of the young PeshwaNarayanrao. The popular story that says that Raghunathrao wanted to become the peshwa and so sent a message to SumersinghGardi to capture Narayanrao(NarayanravasDhara). The letter was intercepted by his wife Anandibai who changed the alphabet (from Dhara to Mara)and thereby the order was made to kill Narayanrao instead of capturing him. When Sumersingh’s men entered his room with swords,Narayanrao ran to his uncle Raghunathrao for help screaming “uncle help me”(Kaka Mala Vachva). However he was caught and killed by Sumersingh’s men. It is this particular murder which has become the popular ghost story wherein the people swear that on full moon day in the dead of the night they can still hear the screams of the young peshwa.

Shaniwarwada also saw the suicide of SavaiMadhavrao IIwho jumped from the balcony of his room and fell on the Hazarikaranze and met his death.

The majestic palace caught fire in the year 1828 and the whole structure burnt for 8 days. Except for the basement and the outer fortification of the fort with nagarkhana on top, the whole structure was burnt to ashes.

After roaming in the garden for a while and admiring the ruins of HazariKaranze and other fountains that survived the test of the time, we entered the only intact structure which survives still today. Probably it is living to tell the tales of his (its?) glorious masters to anyone who would care to listen....I thought to myself.

STAIRCASE LEADING TO NAGARKHANA(Courtsy Google Pics)

NAGARKHANA

To go on top there is a narrow staircase. The whole of nagarkhana is of wood and the pillars are carved with fine designs. Once on top you can see the majestic ruins of the palace and you start wondering to yourself...what would have been the grandeur of the palace during its heydays? The drums of this nagarkhana would proudly beat whenever the Peshwas returned home from their victories. It must have also seen the downfall of the Peshwas after the third battle of Panipat and would have felt proud when it got revived under Madhavrao I. Did it cry when this Peshwa succumbed to an early exit at the age of 27? I thought to myself. Did it shed tears when teenaged NarayanRao was brutally murdered just for power by his own uncle? It probably must have done this and all. With these thoughts I turned to the side that faced the main road. Initially it was a huge open ground. Now the statue of PeshwaBajirao I stand tall calling the history lovers to visit the place to pay homage to its glorious past. I guess the Nagarkhana is also pleading silently to the people not to treat the place as something to be visited casually in the evening, the way we visit beaches and garden but to come, sit and ponder for a while.

RUINS OF THE PALACE AS SEEN FROM NAGARKHANA

PESHWA STATUE INFRONT OF THE SHANIWARWADA

It was late in the evening. How the time flew I never did notice. It was time now to say goodbye and we were leaving the palace when Tanvi showed me the board. “There’s a light and sound show in the evening Mumma. Shall we wait?”We did wait but in vain since the show got cancelled. However my friend who lives in Pune told me recently that the show starts in the evenings now a days. So people if you do go there, don’t miss the light and sound show.

HOW TO REACH SHANIWARWADA:

• The Palace is situated in the Shaniwar Peth area of Pune.
• You can easily access it by an auto or car.

The story of lion and the lion fort :Simhagad

“It was a very dark night and some 200 to 300 Mavla soldiers slowly and without a sound were marching towards their destination. All of them had determination etched on their faces. Their leader was a brave man from the army of Shivaji Raje......He too was determined to finish off the task his childhood friend had entrusted him with.......however he was also angry. “how could Raje do this to me?how could he plan this attack without me? Just because I have the marriage of my son pending does not mean that i am not going to do my duty towards Swarajya. Thank Bhavani that I came to know about this attack and now I am going to capture this fort for him. Raje ,aadhi lagin Kondanyache,mag mazya Raibache”(first will be the wedding of Kondhana and then that of my son Raiba). This leader was none other than Tanaji Malusare, Shivaji’s trusted aide and childhood friend who had set out to capture the fort of Kondhana.

The fort in question was one of the favorites of Shivaji and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be.  It is located  in between the forts like Rajgad, Purandhar and Torna and stands majestically at about 1315 meters above sea level in the Sahyadri range. The fort was known as Kondhana  after Sage Kaudinya and its history dates back to 14^th Century when the Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq captured it from the Koli tribal chieftain. After that Kondana changed many hands......from Tughluqs to Nizamshahi to Adilshahi.........Shivaji captured it first in the year 1647 but soon had to give it to Adilshah of Bijapur to release his father who was captured. Shivaji again captured it in 1656 only to lose it to the Mughals in the Treaty of Purandhar with Mirza Raje Jaisingh. In 1665. Aurangzeb who knew the importance of the fort handed it over to a Rajput by name of Udaybhanu who was recruited as the Killedar of this fort.

In the dead of the night Tanaji along with his brother Suryaji and 300 Mavla soldiers were heading towards this fort. They reached at the base of a stiff cliff on the western side.Tanaji had a ghorpad (monitor lizard) ’Yeshwanti’ with him to whom he tried the rope and threw her on the cliff. The Ghorpad with her sharp claws scaled the cliff and hung itself to the wall of the fort. Following her Tanaji and other Mavlas climbed the fort. The battle began and the killedar was told about the intrusion in the fort. Wielding a sword he came out of his quarters and a fierce fight began between Tanaji and Udaybhanu. Both were brave men and injured themselves many times while fighting each other. Finally the shield of Tanaji was shattered to pieces still he fought by protecting his hand with headgear. At last both of them lost their life. Seeing their master fallen to the ground dead, the Maratha army started running back. However Suryaji, Tanaji’s brother cut the ropes and stopped them and encouraged them to win the battle for their king in the name of Tanaji. Finally  the Marathas won. When Shivaji came to know of the victory he reached the fort only to realize that he had won the fort but had lost a lionhearted friend. Mourning the death of his loyal childhood friend, Shivaji is said to have said “Gad aala pan Simhagela”(we have got the fort but lost the man with the strength of a lion). However there is a controversy regarding this statement . According to the historians Kondhana was known as Simhagad many years before this particular battle took place and this line which is attributed to Shivaji is actually a line from a famous Marathi novel Gad Aala Pan Simha Gela written by Hari Narayan Apte.

After 1670 till 1689, the fort remained with the Marathas. It again was captured by Aurangzeb’s army. However Marathas were successful in recapturing it and it remained with them till 1818. After that the British took over the fort.

MAP OF THE FORT(Courtesy Google Pics)

SIMHAGAD AT PRESENT

Everytime I visit Pune I make it a point to visit this fort. I think out of 5 visits of mine I have been here at least 4 times. When you plan to go to this fort, do go early in the morning and if possible without having breakfast. Starting from the foothill of the fort you have small huts which sell piping hot Zhunka bhakar and Kanda pakoras. It feels heavenly to sit there and eat.

   

After eating, you climb the steps and the first gateway that welcomes you is the Pune Darwaza. Since it faces the Pune city it has been named so.

PUNE DARWAZA

 After you cross the gate, you come across a small room like structure. This structure was used as storage room for the arms and ammunition. In between the storage room and the Pune Darwaja, on the right hand side there were the water tanks meant for the horses.

DARUKOTHAR OR THE STORAGE HOUSE FOR AMMUNITIONS

WATER TANKS FOR HORSES, BEHIND IT CAN BE SEEN THE TV TOWER

Keep walking for some distance and again on the right hand side you come across the bungalow of Lokmanya Tilak. Tilak used this bungalow on the Simhagad as his resthouse. It is very small but a very beautiful structure and well preserved.

TILAK BUNGALOW

Near by the Tilak bungalow you find the Samadhi place of Chatrapati Rajaram. Chatrapati Rajaram was the second son of Shivaji. After the capture of Raigad by Zulfikar Khan in the year 1689, Rajaram fled to Jinji in Karnataka while Yesubai, the wife of Sambhaji and his son Shahu were taken as captives of the Mughals. Rajaram fought the Mughals from Jinji and captured many territories. At last he came back in Maharashtra and made Simhagad his home and here at this fort he breathed his last. Inside the Samadhi temple you find a small shivlinga. (Our guide informed us that this was one of the shivlingas that Shivaji used to worship daily.)

CHATRAPATI RAJARAM SAMADHI(Courtsy:Google pic)

Next you go further and you come across the largest water tank in the fort. The water of this tank is still used to drink. The people who live in and at the foothill of the fort carry this water in the barrels. The specialty of this water is not only it taste sweet but higher the temperature, the cooler is the water. It refreshes you completely and again you are ready for the further exploration.(of course here you can once again take a break and have pakodas or ripe cucumbers which are given to you sprinkled with a little bit of salt and little red chili powder and believe me it tastes yummy!!! )

After resting we went to see the Samadhi of Tanaji. Nearby his Samadhi you have that particular cliff of the fort which he is supposed to have climbed.(according to the guide). Today if you see that steep cliff in the broad daylight you wonder how did Tanaji climb it on that night when it was so dark. And your head automatically gets bowed down imagining the bravery of those mavlas who climbed the wall along with Tanaji. These unknown soldiers did not do it for the sake of reward or money. In fact they did not even know what they would encounter once they reach on the top. Their only thing was they have to conquer this fort for their beloved Raje! Such was their loyalty...and such was their love for Shivaji....

THE STEEP CLIFF

SAMADHI OF TANAJI MALUSARE

   

Other than these structures on the fort you have the temples like Kondhaneshwar temple which the main deity of the fort, Amriteshwar temple, the tomb of Udaybhanu, the rajput who died fighting Tanaji and other ruins of the fort.

The fort is very large and it takes you almost half a day to see it. Of course in between you can have rest and eat pakoras, zhunka bhakar as I said earlier. The fort has two doors: one is Pune Darwaja and the other is Kalyan Darwaja. When I had visited the fort for the first time, near the Kalyan Darwaja we had sweet curd and buttermilk which is served to you in earthen pots (another specialty!)J

The climate on the top of the fort is very cool and pleasant. And if at all you feel tired the fresh and cool glass of limboo pani or buttermilk will make your tiredness go away instantly.

Kalyan Darwaja is the last point of this fort. Then you go back to Pune but the experience of this fort remains with you forever. For me it was very special because this was the first fort that I saw when I started my travels.

Today even though Simhagad has become a place for rave parties and one day picnic spot for the people living in the surrounding areas, it still retains its charm for the history-lovers like me.

HOW TO REACH SIMHAGAD:

Simhagad fort is about 30 kms to the city of Pune.

v  From Pune the distance by car is of about one or one and ½ hours. You can take the car right on the top and then climb just few steps to reach the Pune Darwaza.

v  There are buses going to the foothill village of Simhagad from Swargate.

v  Half a day is enough to see the full fort. Though people do spend the whole day since its a favorite picnic spot too.

v  It is also a favorite fort among the trekkers.

v  It is very easy to spot the fort because of the television tower which can be seen from far .